Natural Gas
Methane - the principal component of natural gas composition - is one of the least energy dense hydrocarbon gases. This has implications on transport, storage and distribution of natural gas. Transportation in the gaseous form is only practical using pipelines. Natural gas changes to liquid at temperatures below 160C.
Transporting gas via pipelines is very efficient, but the pipeline infrastructure is expensive to develop, hard to maintain and has strict limitations:
- gas has to be continuously injected into the pipe as gas moves from high pressure zone to low
- gas to be constantly removed from the pipe to ensure flow
- right pressure has to be maintained throughout the length of the pipeline
This means that sometimes natural gas pipelines cannot be turned off. If there is no demand for gas or storage, gas might have to be burned. To prevent waste such situations can be avoided using gas storage.
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[edit] Average mix
- Methane: 80%
- Ethane: 20%
- Propane: 20%
- Butane:
- Carbon Dioxide: 8%
- Nitrogen: 5%
- Hydrogen Sulfide: 5%
[edit] Pricing
Natural gas prices are usually quoted as spread relative to index (such as Henry Hub in the United States). Then the spread is called the basis price. For more info see NaturalGasPricing.
[edit] Natural Gas as Fuel
- The cost of Natural Gas when used as fuel is 20eur/mwh.
- The CO2 emissions of Natural Gas when used as fuel is 56.1g/MJ.
